Tuesday, 16 February 2010

I have had this soap made for a while now, so I've only just got round to sharing it with you.It took me a while to make it as it's been through many stages of development!

I wanted to make something as a tribute to a good friend of mine and also the founder of my soap making business. Her name is Jinny (hence the name of the soap) and if it wasn't for her help I wouldn't be making soaps to sell. So this was the least I could do as a way of saying thank you!

Making something in tribute of someone is quite hard, but really exciting and fun! It definitely was a great experience and got me thinking out of the box.

As I wanted to surprise Jinny with my creation, I had to keep it secret, so asking her questions like 'what's your favourite scent/colour/soap' etc would've given the game away. I already knew she loved Somerset (this is how we got talking in the first place) so I went with that - a Somerset themed soap.When I started thinking about Somerset and what defines it I instantly came up with Orchards. Orchards are literally everywhere here, especially in this area as we are just down the road from Burrow Hill .

So I started thinking about how I would make the soap and decided I wanted it pink, white (apple blossoms) and green. And swirly. I ordered some Apple Blossom and Orchard fruits fragrance oil and had a play around.

I made a sample soap - which didn't turn out well to say the least...

The colours, swirling, EVERYTHING went wrong! So I tried again, with the same colour scheme, but using clear soap base and added mica. Well, I don't have photographic evidence of this failure, but I poured the soap too hot and the colours all splurged together and formed a beigey brown loaf soap. Not good!

I was beginning to think I had set myself up for disaster, so I left it for a couple of days and had another go. As I was chopping up the beige loaf to re-melt I had a brainwave. I decided to do something COMPLETELY different, more abstract, and this is what I came up with...

I absolutely love it! I used the beige chunks from the failed batch as 'trees in blossom' and the green layer is representing grass and the pinky red layer is representing a sunset or juicy red apples.

It smells lovely and produces a smooth and creamy lather.

Great fun to make (even if it was stressful at times!) and it's inspired me to make some more tribute soaps. I think the next one I'll make will be dedicated to Mathilda :)